Cryostorm (28 page)

My biggest worry was that My Nate hadn’t come through Robo Nate’s hold again. I was scared Robo Nate was up to something.

“So what’s happening today? More blood? Running on treadmills? Freezing things?” I shook my head. I’d vowed to never cooperate and here I was, their little lab rat.

“They want to know more about your healing.”

“Lovely. So they can find a way around it when I get out of there and they come after me and hurt me?”

He tugged me to a stop. “I will not allow them to hurt you, Amanda.”

“Yeah. Whatever.” I shook my head. “They kind of do what they want, you know?”

“As do you,” he said. “Which I find most interesting.”

“You’re kind of doing what you want, too, you know?” I smiled. “Your programming. You’re going against it. You missed your window with me according to your fertility calendar—which is totally gross and unromantic, you know that, right?”

He smiled. One of Nate’s smiles. It lit up his eyes like I love. Okay, if the left one wasn’t red, I would have thought Nate was back.

“I am learning much from you. There will be another window in your cycle next month.”

“Gross.” I shook my head. “I’m not staying here a month.”

“We will leave soon.” He started walking again.

“I would like to leave now, please.”

“So you can find a way to get rid of me?” His voice went flat. “That is your plan, is it not?”

Shit
.

“You can’t. The chip is so far embedded into the brainstem, it will not work. We are one. I’ve told you this many times, Amanda.”

Yeah, he sure had. I didn’t want to believe it. Could I ever love Robo Nate like I loved My Nate? Every day he seemed to be more like My Nate. Maybe it was a matter of time before My Nate would bust through.

We approached a door and he, with his free hand, reached for the knob. He stopped and smiled. “It will be okay, Amanda.”

“Says you.”

He turned the knob and pushed open the door.

This was a new room, and they must have graduated from white, because at first glance I saw a couch and a large TV affixed to a sage wall.

I stepped through the threshold and right into the fist of someone who had been standing to the side of the door.
What the hell?

I stumbled to the side, into the arms of another person.

“Hey,” Robo Nate said. “This was—”

“Duck,” I yelled.

He didn’t listen, and it wasn’t a fist that got him. The guy had one of those police clubs. It cracked against Robo Nate’s cheek, and the sound reverberated against the walls surrounding us.

“Nate!” I thrashed in the bear hug that encapsulated me. I crashed my heel against the guy’s shin, and he winced. I curled my fingers around the hands in front of me and turned on the cold.

Three guys pounded on Robo Nate, kicking and punching him. Why wasn’t he fighting back? As the thought went through my brain, he jumped up and two of the guys flew to the side. One collided with the wall next to the door. The other against the two-way mirror.

Son of a bitch
.

The grip around me finally loosened since I’d thrown a thick layer of frost over his hands. When my arms were free, I cranked my elbow back and buried it in the guy’s gut. I jumped forward, turned, then kicked him back. He slammed into the wall. Plaster rained down on him.

Robo Nate’s grunt pulled my attention. The thugs seemed to be focusing on him. Nate grabbed the hands of one and spun, then released, and I froze him in midair. Not lethal freezing—well, I hoped—but enough to give him some serious frostbite.

He thudded to the ground, ice crackling.

Two guys approached Nate at once. I sprayed one, while the other got through. This time he held a knife.

“What the hell is going on?” I yelled. “Nate, speed out of here.”

Why was Bev attacking us?

I kept one spraying hand trained on the guy, then my other shot ice bullets at the knife. It clanked against the floor. Nate turned and spin kicked the guy in the chest. Since my guy was frozen, I sprayed the two-way mirror to make it brittle, just before Nate’s guy made contact.

Glass shattered everywhere. Yelps streamed in through the broken window. Bev bolted up from her chair carrying that damn clipboard again. I fired snowballs into the chests of three guys standing near Bev, but saved a nice stream of ice-cold water for her.

Her squeal only fueled my resolve. She’d planned this attack to observe? My heart thrashed my insides. She was one sick bitch. I opened the flood of water coming through my palm and stepped toward her.

A grunt behind me pulled my attention. Nate lay on the ground, shirt slashed open and blood gushing from a twelve-inch slice across his chest. The guy holding the knife stood over him.

He looked almost scared.

He was right to be. Anger exploded within my stomach, and I faced him. No curbing the lethality of my ice that time. He stepped back, hands up. “No. Wait.”

I streamed ice at his face, effectively silencing him. Both hands pointed I sprayed. The force of it slammed him into the wall. My ice held him against it, freezing him in place. Looked like a spider had spun its web around him and hung him up to dry.

“Nate,” I yelled. Several quick steps brought me to his side. “Oh God, Nate.”

I threw up a shelter of ice around us thick enough to withstand a freaking tank, then I pressed my hands over his chest, just around the oozing blood. “Please. Nate. Wake up.”

He coughed. Blood trickled down his face, and along the temple. I turned his head and saw more blood oozing out of his ear. “No. Nate!” Tears burned the back of my eyes as his body went limp, and his head tilted to the side.

I almost puked.

Focus, Mandy!

I ripped open his shirt and pressed my hand on the bloody mess that was his chest. My healing ice wrapped around us, fusing us together. I leaned into him and sealed my lips to his.
Heal, Nate. Heal!

Within seconds it covered us both, easing my injuries as I focused on his. I couldn’t lose him. Even Robo Nate… He was still My Nate. Mine.

I took care of those I loved.

He flinched beneath me, and I broke off the kiss.

His eyes shot open, and for a split second I saw only brown, no red pulsing. But then they slammed shut again.

“Nate,” I whispered. “Please.” I touched kisses over his cool, frosty cheek, as much as my healing ice cocoon would allow me to move. “Nate.”

He jerked his eyes open and they stayed open this time. Relief flooded over me.

Despite the red glow, I claimed his mouth with a bruising kiss. I hated seeing him hurt. It was My Nate’s body. My brain couldn’t wrap around that it wasn’t My Nate’s brain in control, all I knew was that we were both safe, healed, and together.

He cupped the back of my head and held me tighter to him as he took the kiss deeper. He tasted like cinnamon, just like My Nate.

A few seconds later he pushed away, slightly. “I will kill them.”

“Shhh,” I said, petting his damp hair back, checking that his wounds were all clear. I called in the rest of my healing ice, but kept the shelter around us. His chest was healed, no sign of any other injuries.

“They hurt what is mine. The exercise was only for me to be injured and you to heal.”

“Wait, what? You agreed to be… injured? Why on earth would you do that?”

“To learn more about your healing ice. It’s so different than the offensive weapon.”

“For as smart as you are, you’re really stupid. They can’t be trusted, Nate.” I shook my head.

“You called me Nate.”

“I—”

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You’re healed?”

I coughed through the fact that I had called him Nate. It was just a slip. A sign of how much I missed My Nate. “Good as new.”

He curled his arms around my waist. “You healed me.”

“Of course I did.”

“I’m Robo Nate yet you fought for me. Healed me.”

I rested my head on his chest. “My Nate’s body.”

“Still.” He brushed a kiss against my hair and hugged me tight. “Thank you.”

Someone knocked on my ice, and Robo Nate flinched beneath me. Muffled noises came through, but the words were not understandable. I looked at Robo Nate and asked, “So, are you ready to leave yet?”

He nodded.

“Plan?” My heart thrashed with hope.

“We’re on the second floor. There’s a window in the office across from here. We’ll go through that and jump.”

“Jump? Wait, what?”

Another knock on my ice.

“You can fly,” he said.

“Yeah, but you can’t.”

“I can sustain the impact from landing two stories down.” He smiled. “Then I’ll speed us away.”

“I expected a more intricate plan from a robot.”

“Why be complicated when the answer is simple? They’ll take us in the office now to question us about the exercise and healing.” He combed his fingers through my hair as his eyes analyzed my face with such wonder. “You are a treasure.”

“Nate, I—”

“Follow my lead.”

I nodded and pushed back getting ready to pull in the ice when Robo Nate’s hands cupped my cheeks. He held me steady, his gaze impaling me with intensity. God, I just wanted to see My Nate if even for a second. Soon maybe. Once out, and back to Brandon’s team, he’d have scientists that could extract the chip.

Robo Nate pulled my face to his and touched a kiss to my lips, then my nose, then my eyes. Tears stung. I kept them closed, dreaming it was My Nate. In a way it was, because My Nate did that to me all the time. It was different this time, but I allowed it.

Even enjoyed it.

“Okay,” he whispered.

I called in the ice. A drenched Bev looked down at me with murder in her eyes. I glanced at Robo Nate and smiled. His eyes squinted as if he was trying to pry into my mind to see what I was thinking.

Robo Nate wanted to learn, right? It might be time for a fun little slippery floor prank on Miss Snooty Scientist.

Then, we were out of here.

Chapter 41

“N
ice stunt you pulled there, Mandy.” Bev limped into the office, rubbing her right butt cheek.

I stifled a laugh and caught Robo Nate smiling as well as he stared at me in disbelief. I’d slicked the floor around where he and I were on the ground so when Bev turned to lead us from the room she wiped out.

Classic pranks
never
went out of style.

I plopped down into the seat facing Bev’s mahogany desk as she tossed Robo Nate a new shirt. I’d pretty much trashed the one he’d worn to get to his wound. I glanced around as he did his business putting it on.

True to Robo Nate’s word, there were windows. Lots of them.

They overlooked the open desert. The sun beamed down, baking the already dried bushes and desert brush. I couldn’t see anything for miles other than a sea of brown. Bev eased herself into the high back office chair and Nate stood near the windows, arms over his chest. He glanced over his shoulder and scanned the area.

My heart lurched. We were really going to do this. Weren’t we?

Bev was the only person in the office, beside Robo Nate and me. It couldn’t be more perfect. Of course there was a camera in the corner of the room, but if we worked fast enough, it wouldn’t matter. Of course, the fence surrounding the property concerned me a little. But Nate would have thought of that. Maybe he could jump really high? Carry us over it?

Or, no, I could ice a ramp. Maybe some steps. Wasn’t sure how to do the steps thing. Never tried. But still. I could make a ramp of snow and—

“Your behavior in the simulated fight was exemplary. You easily defeated several of our best agents.” Bev scribbled something on her paper. “Even with the element of surprise.”

“You hurt Amanda. That was not part of the arrangement.” His voice was even. Tone solid and pitch utterly degrading.

“You both needed to be taken by surprise. What were your thoughts during the fight, Mandy?”

“Other than wanting to kill you?” I smiled. “Nothing really. Just to stay alive. To keep Nate—er—Robo Nate alive.”

“How is your healing ice different than the ice you use in battle?” Bev scribbled more on her notepad, which was of course connected to her clipboard. I really wanted to shove that thing down her throat. I usually wasn’t such a violent person, but all this crap with The Center, GenCorp, and Robo Nate was really warming me up to the idea of going nuclear with the ice on this place.

“Mandy?”

“It’s
Amanda
.” I shook my head. “I don’t know. It just is.”

Bev looked to Robo Nate. “It’s not as cold as her lethal ice. Felt more soothing as it entered my injuries. I am unable to describe it more.”

“Unable or unwilling?”

“Excuse me?” I said. “It’s hard to describe what I can do. I don’t know how I can do it or how it’s different. It’s what I tell it to be. If I’m thinking heal the ice heals. If not, it just is.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said. “You know what? Never mind. I’m done trying to figure out your sick scientific mind. Are we finished yet?” I pushed myself up to my feet.

“No. We’re not.” She nailed Robo Nate with a glare. “Why have you not mated with her as your programming indicates is priority number one?”

I flinched at the term mated. These guys had no couth, did they? Mating, inseminating, I mean, really. What was I, just a little… Oh, I shouldn’t even finish that. They wouldn’t do that, would they? Of course they would. They’d use me as an incubator no problem. I mean, they killed my folks, poked and prodded, played God, why wouldn’t they do that?

I inched toward Robo Nate. Even the prospect of being with him was better than whatever
they
would do to get me pregnant.

“Josiah?” Bev asked.

This time he flinched. He did that every time Bev used his given name. It had to be the My Nate remembering his time at The Center as Josiah. Slave to the sickos there. Planning my mom’s capture.

Man our relationship was complicated. I shook my head.

“It’s a study. Nothing else.”

“Of…” Bev set her pencil aside, never taking her intense stare from him.